


You're the Light in my Nightmares

by BoredPug



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Dreams, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, M/M, One Shot, solangelo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-15
Updated: 2016-03-15
Packaged: 2018-05-26 21:15:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6256153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoredPug/pseuds/BoredPug
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico has a terrible nightmare and Will helps him.<br/>Nico's nightmare is written in italics, reality is written normally.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're the Light in my Nightmares

_ The dream started out calmer than usual. Nico was standing on a cliff, the sun was hidden behind storm clouds and the air smelled like rain. There was a light summer breeze that made his hair flow all around. It was just grass on one side and an endless fall from the cliff on the other side. If it was the sea or anything else at the bottom, the view might have been enjoyable, pleasant even, however there was nothing but darkness. Nico didn’t have any weapons on him, just his casual clothes. The dark made him uneasy which was quite strange since he usually felt relaxed in the shadows.  _

 

Will couldn’t sleep that night. It wasn’t that he was nervous sleeping in the same bed as Nico, they got way past that, he just felt a small ball of anxiety in his stomach. He wasn’t sure why, maybe if he hugged Nico, it would be better? But he didn’t want to wake the Ghost King up, he rarely fell asleep right away, it was just today that their roles have shifted. Will stared at the ceiling for a while and then turned to lay on his side, facing the smaller boy. The moonlight glinted on Nico’s pale face and sunken cheeks. Will managed to get him a bit healthier but Nico was naturally sick looking. He looked so peaceful sleeping, the light so beautiful on him. Will could never get enough of that sight. It was a warm summer night and they had an open window, a summer breeze snuck into the room and for a moment Will thought he could smell a storm coming. Rain in the air.

 

_ Something seemed to materialize in the shadows. Well, partially materialize. A human shadow with smoke for legs started approaching Nico. He wanted to turn away and run, but his legs literally froze in place so he couldn’t move. The figure was a few feet away now, still covered in shadows. The air around him got so cold he could see himself exhaling. The dark lifted slowly to reveal a familiar face.  _

 

_ “Brother,” Bianca said. The shadow creature looked like Nico’s older sister, but it didn’t look right. Her eyes were glazed over, her skin sickishly green, her posture and face all sad and vile.  _

_ “Bianca,” Nico’s heart broke when he saw her like that.  _

_ “Brother dear,” the shadow ghost smiled wickedly: “Why the sad face?” _

_ “I’m not your brother, you’re just a foul ghost,” Nico tried to stay focused.  _

_ “Oh, no, no. I am what you made me. You didn’t save me, you left my future in the hands of that incompetent Percy Jackson,” Bianca circled around him. _

_ The ghost was trying to wake up Nico’s grudge against Percy, he knew it was doing that, but after all these years Nico still had repressed bad feelings about Percy. _

_ “Bianca, you were the one to tell me I shouldn’t hold grudges,” Nico clenched his hands into fists. _

_ “Don’t tell me you actually took my advice?” the ghost laughed harshly: “You have to avenge my death! Once and for all!” _

_ “Stop! You’re not my sister!” Nico moved with such force he unfroze his legs. _

_ “You’re weak!” Bianca’s ghost shouted.  _

_ He moved towards her and the ghoul backed off hissing. They took a few steps like that when the shadow image shifted and there, in front of Nico, actual Bianca was standing. This time a true version of her, beautiful and healthy.  _

_ “Nico! Save me!” she screamed, an invisible force pulling her towards the edge of the cliff. _

_ His face switched from angry to horrified in an instant.  _

_ “Bianca!” he foolishly ran after her. Nico didn’t realize how close they already were to the edge and let his feelings take over his actions.  _

_ She screamed some more and soon she was floating right over the edge.  _

_ “Help me, Nico!” Bianca cried out.  _

_ Nico knew that he couldn’t help her but still he put out his hand for her. She kept floating further away and shouting for help. Nico jumped out to her and landed on some sort of platform in the middle of the air. He grabbed her arm and wanted to pull them away when her image shifted again and she went back to looking ghoulish.  _

_ The ghost let out an evil laugh: “Foolish little demigod,” and Nico started falling into the darkness his face even paler with fear. _

 

Nico shifted in his sleep and muttered something under his breath. Will didn’t find that strange he knew that demigods had powerful dreams, he had them himself. Sometimes, though, Nico would tell him what he dreamt off, if it got too much to keep inside. Will then understood why he sometimes didn’t want to go sleep and would exhaust himself. He definitely didn’t approve of it, but he could understand why that the pale boy didn’t want to see horrible things like that.    
Outside the moon was getting higher. You could hear a faint sound of some demigods having a good time in a near cabin and he could somewhat even smell the bonfire still burning. He layed on his back and yawned. Suddenly the air around them got a few degrees colder and Nico started shivering in his sleep. Will looked at him strangely and put the blanket higher over the pale boy’s body. He pulled up the covers on himself too. The summer wind was always warm, but this was nothing like it. Will worriedly gazed at Nico’s face.

 

_ He was falling for quite a while and when he finally landed Nico felt his bones crack, but he could move just fine, the pain was there, though. He got up and wiped the blood that was dripping from his forehead. The Ghost King looked around him. The place was dark, it had a strange aura. As his vision adapted to the strange glow in this place, he recognized it right away. He was back in Tartarus, all alone. Fear washed all over his body, his eyes were full of dread. He started breathing quickly and shallow, his pulse rapidly increasing. The panic disabled him and he stood in place. Nico closed his eyes and tried to steady his breathing. After what seemed like forever he got himself under control again. _

_ He looked around again, his lungs burning with the poisonous air. He saw the veins of Tartarus which were deadly rivers, and monsters of all kind forming in Tartarus’ skin. Nico almost threw up but managed to keep it together. He started walking aimlessly but the scenes shifted so fast it was like he was fast forwarding a tape cassette, it made his head feel unpleasant and ache. _

_ When the unnatural motion stopped he was standing in a, sadly, familiar place and in front of him a face ghastly grinned.  _

_ “If it isn’t my favourite demigod,” Akhlys smiled, blood dripping from her cheeks: “It’s nice to see you again.” _

_ “Akhlys,” Nico responded weakly. _

_ “You see misery again and again, my dear Nico. I like that about you, but it also makes me kind of mad that I can’t show any more horrible things than you haven’t already seen,” Akhlys continued. _

_ “You’re right, there’s nothing more you could show me. So, just leave me alone, all right?” he tried to sound more confident. _

_ “Although I can sense some new horrors you haven’t seen yet. This surprises me a bit, you already know almost everything there is to know about misery and at such a young age!” she almost sounded excited. _

_ Nico gulped but he didn’t respond. _

_ “That boy, the Golden Boy, you love him don’t you?” Akhlys smiled evilly. _

_ He slightly nodded and regretted it immediately. _

_ Right away his mind flashed with horrible images of Will suffering, dying miserably or simply hating Nico for something he’d done. The images weren’t much, but all of them at once made his heart almost fall apart. _

_ “This is nothing, little demigod, I haven’t shown you all of my powers yet,” she laughed. _

_ “Enough,” Nico screamed and charged at her. _

 

Will was staring through the window, he could just see some stars and the moon, which was high on the night sky, it was getting really late. Or was it already getting early?

Nico hastily turned around in his sleep and then stayed perfectly still for a few minutes. All of a sudden he started breathing really fast and nervously shifting. Will quickly grabbed Nico’s hand and laced their fingers. That seemed to calm Nico down a bit, but it made Will really worried about what was going on with the smaller boy.

Then Nico started moving his head all around, like he was dizzy. His breathing got better but still it didn’t seem quite normal. He stopped moving and again muttered something under his breath. His expression changed and Will swore he could hear him say his name. Nico let out some whimpers and groaned. Will was still clutching his hand. 

 

_ Akhlys hissed at him, he was moving with such speed that he didn’t properly notice he ran right through her. Nico got quiet and saw that the scene shifted again. He was standing in, what looked like, a narrow and old hallway. Nico took a moment to recollect his thoughts and realized he was again in the Labyrinth. There didn’t seem to be any immediate danger around him, and in the moment he decided to move forward, a figure started approaching him from the distance. “Oh no, not again,” Nico muttered to himself.  _

_ The figure laughed harshly and stopped a few feet away from him. Nico’s face got even paler, he clenched his hands in fists. _

_ “Fancy seeing you here, Ghost King,” king Minos said slowly. _

_ “You ...” Nico whispered. _

_ “How are you these days? Your sister still dead?” the king wickedly smiled. _

_ He didn’t get an answer, Nico just quietly glared at him. _

_ “Not even able to speak? You’re getting weaker every day, little demigod,” he continued: “The things I could have been if it weren’t for your weakness. The things WE could have been.” _

_ “You’re not going to manipulate me again,” Nico said with confidence: “Leave me alone, go back to the Underworld, where you came from.” He tried to use his powers to send Minos away but it didn’t work. _

_ “I’m not just some ghost you can get rid off so easily. I am here to stay and haunt your every pathetic nightmare, until you finally lose your mind,” the king took a step towards him. _

_ Nico was starting to lose control again, panic washing over him. _

 

Something was really wrong with Nico’s dreams. Will wanted to help him desperately, he started shaking him and when that didn’t work he said and then yelled his name. Golden Boy had another idea, a completely mad idea, but he had to try something. He kept his fingers laced with Nico’s, laid right next to the smaller boy and closed his eyes, focusing on Nico. 

 

_ “I’m not just your everyday ghost. You see my wife, the sorceress, granted me some magic and now I can do this,” Minos charged for Nico and put both of hands on his neck, pushing him against the wall and choking him.  _

_ Nico struggled for air and tried to free himself but when he attempted to get Minos off of him, his hands went right through the king. _

_ “Neat magic isn’t it? Now, every night, I’ll get to haunt your dreams, but I won’t kill you. I’ll just do to you what you did to me. I have to endure my pain every day in the Fields of Punishment and I’ve decided to show you some of it,” Minos eyes glazed with madness. _

_ He let Nico catch a breath and then tightened the grip on his neck while letting out a crazy laugh. _

_ In the distance a faint light glinted. Nico thought that he was dying and this was the light at the end of the tunnel, as they said. It got larger and stronger, it felt warm, golden and yellow of color, like the sun. Minos didn’t notice it at first, but when a humanoid figure made of this light stood next to him he got startled and let Nico go. The Ghost King fell to his knees gasping for air, ignoring the figure for now.   _

_ “How dare you? What even are you?” the king demanded. _

_ The light didn’t speak, it just stepped even closer to Minos and put both of its hands on the king’s shoulders. _

_ “Hey! Stop! What are you doing? Stop it!” Minos wailed in pain. He slowly started to disintegrate.  _

_ “This isn’t over di Angelo! I’ll get my revenge one day!” were his last words before he disappeared. _

_ The figure put its hand out for Nico and he reluctantly took it. It pulled him into its arms and softly said: “Nico, wake up. It’s okay, you can wake up.”  _

 

Nico woke up and immediately sat up gasping for more air. He could feel his heartbeat in his head and he had tunnel vision. 

Will sat up in front of him and said something, but Nico couldn’t hear him. Then Will took his hands in his own and started slowly breathing, showing Nico when to inhale and exhale, to calm him down.

This went on for a couple of minutes, and eventually Nico’s breathing went more or less to normal. There were tears on his cheeks and he could hear again.

“It’s okay now. It was just a dream, a horrible nightmare, but it’s over now. Okay?” Will reassured him.

Nico looked down and slowly nodded. Will took one of his hands and wiped Nico’s tears dry. 

“T-there was Bianca … And A-akhlys. And I was back in Tart-tartarus,” some more tears escaped from Nico’s eyes, he was shaking. Will looked at him sympathetically, wiping the tears away.

“That was you, right? When did you learn to do that? You saved my life, oh gods, if it weren’t for you Will …” Nico started talking really fast.

Will cut him off: “I didn’t know I could do that either, but I had to try something. I was so scared for you and I couldn’t wake you up.”

“Thank you,” Nico said weakly. 

Will didn’t say anything instead he pulled him into a hug. He kissed the top of his head while Nico buried his face in Will’s chest. 

“Look,” Will said smiling, pointing at the window: “The sun is rising. Everything’s going to be okay.”

Nico looked up and saw the early rays of sunshine. The golden light complimented Will’s freckles and hair perfectly. He leaned in to kiss him. It was a soft and tender kiss.

“I love you,” he whispered, resting his forehead on Will’s.

“I love you, too,” Will smiled and kissed him again.


End file.
